Mike Sciandra kept $300-$400 zippered inside a pouch in his leather backpack, ready for the moment he could take a break from his traveling sales job and walk into a Nebraska bar or convenience store.
There, in Auburn, Aurora, Columbus, North Platte or York, he’d bet the maximum $4 per spin on a so-called “skill game,” a legal slot machine look-alike that until this summer faced little state scrutiny…
Sciandra, now a recovering gambling addict and executive director of the Nebraska Council on Problem Gambling, notes that until this July, the owners of skilled gaming machines — also known as cash devices, skill touch machines or gray machines — weren’t required to contribute a cent of gaming revenue to help problem gamblers.
